Cave Pony Days
by adept42
Summary: When the ponies discover a mysterious cave, Pinkie Pie tells them a story about the ancient Cave Ponies


On a bright and sunshiney day in Ponyville, six ponies went out for a picnic. They climbed the rolling hills that overlooked the town, and Pinkie Pie, the talkiest pony in the group, noticed a small cave that was partially hidden by the undergrowth. "Oh my gosh! Everyone needs to come over here and check this out!"

Twilight Sparkle, the brainiest pony in the group, was hesitant to explore the cave, but Pinkie's enthusiasm couldn't be contained. "Let me just make some light so we can see inside first," said Twilight, and she illuminated her magic horn.

All of the ponies gasped at the sight of cave walls covered in beautiful paintings. The multi-colored artwork featured animals and monsters that the ponies recognized, but some of the creatures were completely new to them. All danger was forgotten, and the ponies wandered about the cave in awe. Once they had explored every nook and crevice of the small cave, they gathered to discuss what they had found.

"This is a really incredible discovery," said Twilight, "I have no idea who or what could have created this place."

"Oh, I know! I know!" said Pinkie, "It must have been the ancient Cave Ponies!"

"Cave Ponies?" asked Applejack, the most pragmatic pony in the group. "There weren't no ponies in this here country till Ponyville was founded. And ponies ain't never lived in caves."

"There are so!" insisted Pinkie, "I learned all about them from my great-uncle Phylogeny Pie!"

"Well it can't hurt to hear what Pinkie knows, or thinks she knows," said Twilight. "Why don't we eat our picnic as we listen?"

"Thanks Twilight," said Pinkie, and she took a deep breath.

"A really long, long, long, LONG time ago, ponies lived in caves because houses hadn't been invented yet. And it wasn't just houses! Ponies didn't have ice cream, or roller skates, or railroads, or accordions, or trampolines! In fact, almost nothing had been invented in the time of..." Pinkie took another deep breath: "**CAVE PONY DAYS!**"

Twilight whispered to Applejack: "This might not have been such a good idea after all."

Pinkie continued, "In those days, all of the land was ruled by the wise Princess Terrestria. She lived in a big fancy cave and loved to throw parties, but they were kind of dull because most party stuff hadn't been invented yet. One day, the princess assigned a quest to her smartest and most loyal student: Pretty-Rock-Sparkle. Her task was to think up new inventions to create the greatest party ever."

"Whoa, whoa! Hold on a sec!" said Rainbow Dash, the most impetuous pony in the group. "You're going to tell us everything you know about cave ponies by telling this silly story?"

"Well sure," said Pinkie. "Stories are the best way to learn about any pony."

"I don't know," said Twilight, "it seems pretty unlikely that there really just happened to be a princess and a student whose names just happened to be similar to me and Princess Celestia."

In a flash, Pinkie got a very serious look on her face and zoomed up close to Twilight. "The ancient Cave Ponies aren't happy with little ponies who don't believe the story." Her voice got even spookier as she repeated herself, "They aren't happy if you don't believe!" Pinkie's voice echoed through the cave and the paintings seemed to loom a bit larger and scarier than before. Just as quick, Pinkie changed back to her normal self, "At least that's what Uncle Phil told me when I was a little pony and asked lots of questions instead of going to bed."

"Now where was I? Oh yeah! Pretty-Rock-Sparkle had to invent stuff to create the greatest party ever. She thought and thought, but couldn't think of anything new to invent. She decided to visit the caves of ponies throughout the land and ask them if they had any ideas. The first pony she found was Cave Pinkie. Her cutie mark was the same as mine -except it looked like upside-down balloons!"

Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes, but didn't interrupt.

"When Cave Pinkie heard about the quest, she said, '_Ugga Wugga!_' which means, 'Wow!' and '_Womba Zomba!_' which means, 'Your quest is amazing' and '_Picko-wa-see!_' which means, 'Me do me best to help as much as me can!' Cave Pinkie invited Pretty-Rock-Sparkle to see the 'party rocks' she had made. She had painted rocks in lots of bright colors and hung them from the cave ceiling. It made the cave look very festive, but Cave Pinkie wasn't any good tying knots; the party rocks kept on falling down and hitting Pretty-Rock-Sparkle."

Pinkie stopped and cast a sly glance at the other ponies. "My Uncle Phil claims that learning to dodge party rocks helped my ancestors develop the 'Pinkie Sense'. Isn't that so amazing?"

"Survival of the fruitiest," grumbled Twilight Sparkle.

"Anyways," continued Pinkie, "Pretty-Rock-Sparkle got an idea after her head stopped hurting so bad: why not create party rocks that go up instead of going down? She figured out how to extract rubber from rubber trees, stretch and harden it into the right shape, and fill them with helium refined from natural gas deposits. When Cave Pinkie saw the new invention start to float, she said, '_Do-pah jew-fa gimbo who-sew!_' which means 'That great invention, me call it "Balloon"!'"

"So you're telling us that ponies invented balloons before they invented houses," said Twilight.

"Yup! They're much more important to the development of pony culture. Anyways, the next step was to invent some new food for the party, and Cave Pinkie suggested they talk to a pony named Applerock. They found that pony in a field of apple trees and looking hungry. They watched as the pony gathered her courage and charged headfirst into one of the trees. The impact shook out a couple of apples, but the poor pony was so dizzy that she had trouble seeing. She ate the apples on the ground but also ended up eating some of the rocks that were there!"

"After Pretty-Rock-Sparkle explained their quest, Applerock said that she thought apples could be good to eat at parties. It was too bad that some of them always seemed to be so crunchy and hard. Then Pretty-Rock-Sparkle had another great idea: instead of hitting the trees with your head, why not kick them with your hooves! Applerock tried out the idea and it worked great. She told the other ponies, '_Yawlso mimsy yahere tea-see,_' which means, "Yall gave me good invention, me call it "Applebucking".'"

"I won't say nothing about this cuz I'm to flabbergasted to think what to say," said Applejack.

Pinkie Pie smiled and continued the story. "The next pony they visited was named Rockity. Her special talent was making designer rocks for ponies to wear on special occasions. Some of the necklaces and bracelets she made worked okay, but a lot of her big suit-of-rocky-armor-type-creations were way too heavy for ponies to wear. Pretty-Rock-Sparkle noticed a pile of fur in Rockity's cave and..."

"Fur!" shouted Rarity, the most fashion-conscious pony in the group. "I would never design anything with fur! It's barbaric!"

Pinkie Pie looked puzzled, "All of it came from nice animals that were glad to shed their furry coats for the summer; what's wrong with that?"

All of the ponies looked uncomfortable. Fluttershy, the animal-friendliest pony in the group, was the first to speak up. "Furry creatures don't shed their coats, it only comes off when they're... dead."

Pinkie Pie seemed even more confused, but she shook her head and said, "Well I guess things just worked differently in Cave Pony Days. Following Pretty-Rock-Sparkle's suggestion, Rockity sewed the fur into lovely outfits for the ponies to wear and decided to call this invention '_quinta-fi,_' which means 'clothing'. They gave the furry animals some balloons as a way to say '_Wixy-zop!_' That means 'Thank you!'"

Twilight sighed, "Let's just let her finish."

"Their next stop was to visit Squiggleshy, friend to all of the squiggling caterpillars. They all thought the caterpillars were cute, but Pretty-Rock-Sparkle thought they'd be even cuter if they were more colorful and could fly. She noticed the caterpillars spinning silk, and suggested they try weaving themselves a tiny little changing room. Squiggleshy liked the idea, and she gently coaxed the caterpillars into trying it. When they emerged, Squiggleshy said something in a very quiet whisper; I don't know what she said, but I do know that she decided to call these new creatures 'Butterflies'."

The other ponies looked at Fluttershy, and she just shrugged. "I stopped trying to teach Pinkie about animals a long time ago."

"Finally, the ponies wanted to invent something that was so big and amazing that it would make every pony from miles around want to come to the party. They went to see Redbow Dash, a Pegasus pony who left a streak of red behind her as she flew. They agreed that red was pretty cool, but Pretty-Rock-Sparkle suggested that Redbow Dash try going fast enough to create other colors."

Pinkie Pie got more excited and leapt up onto a rock to start acting out this part of the story. "The brave pony flew way up high above the clouds and the charged down at an incredible speed. As she went faster, the streak of light she created went from red, to orange, to yellow, to green, to blue, to purple... SWOOSH!" Pinkie Pie jumped down and her impact created a cloud of dust. "And then, the ponies saw the most amazing thing they'd ever seen. All of the colors had come together! Redbow Dash said, '_Ja-happa folassy piko memossy! Ginta roy-gee-biv!_' and that means 'This new thing 20% cooler! Me call it "Rainbow"!'"

"I gotta admit that this part is kind of cool," said Rainbow Dash.

"So all of the ponies used their new inventions to create the best party ever. The only problem was that Pretty-Rock-Sparkle was sad that she hadn't created an invention of her own."

"Even though she'd done a lot of work helping everyone else to create a new invention," said Twilight Sparkle.

"But just then," continued Pinkie Pie, "Princess Terrestria came over to talk with her favorite student. She said '_Fibso trow-so slofta quafta yeef-see,_' and that means, 'Most amazing thing at party is bond you create with other ponies. You six ponies stronger and happier than any could be alone. What you call this thing?'"

"Pretty-Rock-Sparkle realized that Princess Terrestria was right. She had helped to create something that was really new and really special. She jumped for joy and said, '_Tripala fef-bo Gwapla-she-sho squilly-sly-she!_' and that means, 'Amazing new thing is called 'friendship'!" After that, Pretty-Rock-Sparkle and all of her friends had a great time at the party."

"So that's the end of this story from Cave Pony Days. They didn't have houses, but they did have balloons, applebucking, clothing, butterflies, rainbows, and friendship. That means they really aren't so different from us."

The other ponies were quiet for a bit, and Twilight Sparkle was the first to speak up. "Well that story... wasn't too bad. And it had a nice ending."

"Oh you liked it!" gushed Pinkie Pie. "Well that's great because I have lots of other stories from Cave Pony Days! Like how Pretty-Rock-Sparkle defeats the great and powerful Roxie! Or how Squigglyshy stares down a dinosaur! Or how Cave Pinkie leads the rock sprites out of..."

"Now hold on girl," said Applejack. "You mean to tell us that you heard all of these stories from your own uncle when you were a little filly? Before you met any of us?"

"Well I'm not sure that I'm remembering all of the precise little nitty-gritty bits in just the exact same way," admitted Pinkie. "But I do remember my uncle telling me that true friendship lasts forever. So who's to say there weren't some cave ponies who were just as good friends as we are?"

"I suppose that is a nice thought," said Fluttershy, "but why don't we head back to Ponyville? It's going to be dark soon, and I need to tuck Angel in to bed."

With that, the ponies filed out of the cave, but their stomping hooves dislodged a rock that covered up the one picture in the cave that they'd missed. It was a picture of six ponies, and beneath it was a heart with a circle around it. In the writing of the Cave Ponies, that symbol means: "Best Friends Forever".

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><p>Author's Note: My first FiM-fic! This fic was loosely inspired by the "Caveman days" feature on Sesame Street. I hope you liked it!<p> 


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